When real estate agents take you through houses, they often like to dazzle you with frivolous, eye-catching aspects. Unless you ask tough questions and pay for a professional inspection, you won’t get much insight about whether or not the home is livable and truly worth its asking price.

Shawn is peeved. He’s in the middle of securing financing on a new house and the last thing you need during that time period are any surprise people looking at your credit report. These inquiries can bring your score down. But he got exactly one of those, a “hard” one, thanks to an unauthorized peek-a-boo Time Warner Cable decided to do on his credit report when called them up to ask about reducing his cable package.